Moving on to the next Planned Food Shopping Haul

The Plans

This is likely to be not this coming week but the week after.  There is nothing quite like planning, and I like to get in mind the items that I am after and out of, which often decides where I am going to be going to ensure those items are put back into stock again. I must clarify that until my different food areas are stocked up to my satisfaction I will not necessarily be adding to that stock again until the stock is low again.  I am trying to keep a float each month to be able to take advantage of various offers and also obtain the ingredients often seasonal for preserving my own food.   

This last month (February) 

I have stocked up on a lot of meat items for the freezer, and stocked up on cleaning materials. Freezer contents will probably last for the next 6 months apart from those items like sausages and bacon which we seem to be quite heavy on.  Cleaning materials should last for the next 3 to 4 months apart from the soap powder and the fabric conditioner.  I will therefore get a lot of mileage out of what has already been bought.  Meat will not be the focus for this next shopping trip, however if I find a bargain on something and I have made the jam I intend to make to free up space in the freezer then I may well take advantage or add in some extra meat to fill the freezer once the fruit has been eaten

This next planned shopping day 

This will consist of fresh veggies and eggs in the first instance. Please note, this time around I am able to do a bulk buy, but quite frequently I often build  up my pantry contents a few tins of this and a few tins of that a bit at a time. I take the view that building up a little is better than nothing.  Equally, I do not use the "additions" for at least a month when I am usually able to add a few more tins to give myself a "head-start" on starting to stock/re-stock the Pantry. For instance we are heavy on tomatoes and baked beans and I try and buy in the six pack of either and am frequently having to add more of these in-between bigger shops. 

I usually do bulk shops about twice a year around this time of year and then in September moving forward to December. Once the Pantry is full, then I have a few months clear of having to buy anything else in, unless I get particularly low on an item.

I will not need a sack of potatoes this month as I bought one last month. I have found on average that we go through a large bag of potatoes between 6 to 8 weeks.  I nearly always try and have trays of eggs in the house as they are good for eating, baking and preserving.  If you have both eggs and potatoes in as you can make an awful lot of tasty meals with them without having potatoes with every meal.

The intention this month is to pay attention to the tinned food situation.  I certainly need Tuna - have gone through all that I had in the Pantry.  Note to myself probably need to invest a little more in Tuna this time around.  Last time I bought in about 10 tins; needs to be a bit more than that this time round.  There are items like tinned ham, corned beef, salmon, that are also needed.  Soup, baked beans, whole tomatoes, potatoes, passata, Coconut milk, coconut butter are also needed.

I also need to add in a few more cartons of long life milk.  I make yogurt, and custard with this to use it up especially if it is getting to the use by date. More than anything it is there as an emergency measure in case I run out of milk.  I also need condensed milk, which I use in sweet making and evaporated milk which I add to tinned fruit and also to homemade rice pudding.

I also need to stock up on some baking ingredients. I am going to send for some more bread flour in bulk, both brown and white but also some SR flour also in bulk and dried and fresh yeast. Probably  Porridge Oats as well as I use these a lot in baking, homemade Muesli, homemade Granola and Porridge I had already planned on making more of my own bread in any event and this purchase ties in nicely with that.  I am currently trying to make sure that I have everything available for doing this moving forward and also create a routine and arrange my working area where being able to do this slots in seamlessly and I am not having to scrabble around finding this or that when I come to do so.

It looks as though I am going to have to source some Food storage buckets for long-term storage either in the Pantry itself or in the cupboard under the stairs.

I do need to buy in a lot of sugar.  I have a lot of jams to make in the upcoming weeks (the fruit of which is stored in the freezer at the moment).  I therefore plan on liberating this and getting the preserves made.  

Apples

I also need to purchase more cooking apples to pop apple sauce up on the Pantry shelf.  I think I have about four jars left from the batches made before Christmas.  I therefore really need to at least double the quantity, and make different batches to add to the Pantry.   This is something that I use a lot of and have plans to use a lot more of in the future.  Finding out what you need and what you use in  your household is a question of trial and error as each households needs and likes are unique to them.  

Next time I make apple sauce, I intend on making some smaller jars of this as well for the simple reason I have been using the standard jam jar sized jar for processing the apples in.  Unless I am doing some baking potentially I could end  up wasting a precious resource, therefore some smaller jars will also help enormously.  Jars of different sizes to serve all eventualities as it were.  

Technically speaking you could to use up the apple sauce by buying or make some puff pastry and turn the apple and pastry, perhaps with the addition of some whipped cream into apple turnovers.  There has to be a use for everything.  No wastage allowed.  Things are too expensive.

Reduced Cream to turn into Butter

I also am going to be looking out for cream with the intention of making some homemade butter which I intend to freeze.  This is to ensure that we have a ready supply when needed.  Also intend to make some herb butters as well.

Arrowroot

I have also been on the lookout for some Arrowroot powder. I first came across Arrowroot Powder when I was at school in Domestic Science classes.  We were taught the technique of making pastry flans with the metal fluted rings with no base. We used the natural fruit juice to create a sauce/glaze for the fruit.  Instead of using Cornflour, we used the Arrowroot which gave the sauce/glaze a vibrant shiny crystal quality; whereas using the Cornflour for this would have made a cloudier more dense sauce.  It is also very good for people with delicate stomachs/digestion systems as the body finds it easier to process than Cornflour. When I was learning how to cook it was also advocated as one of the items to use when someone had been ill as yet again easier for a reduced system to tolerate.  It is also used commonly in Vegan cooking. 

For quite some time, I was buying the Arrowroot direct from Holland and Barratt until they closed the line on this and many other products that I used to buy from them.  They are certainly not what I call a proper health food shop these days.  They seem to be pushing pills in bottles more than anything else. 

In any event, I have found an online supplier and placed an order for a 2kg bag of Arrowroot for £9.60. I use it in puddings and gravies and sauces. It is gentler on the stomach than Cornflour, which I also use.  However, I do prefer the Arrowroot.  Arrowroot does keep for a lengthy period of time in the correct storage.  Do not know what Arrowroot is?  Check out this post here:

What is Arrowroot Powder

The link is here for those of you who may be interested:

2kg Bag of Arrowroot Powder

Just click on the link that comes up.

Ginger Preserve

I also ordered in some Ginger Preserve as I have been unable to locate this at all.  I have ordered a pack of six jars and they have arrived today.  I am contemplating placing another order for this to maintain the supplies I have have moving forward for my breakfast.

Link is here for those of you who are interested:

Mackays Ginger Preserve

Thai Green Curry

I also plan to make some Thai style Green Curry (which I like) and have stocked in the fridge some Lemon Grass puree and Ginger Puree to be able to do so.

Italian ingredients and Sausages

I also plan on going to the Italian Shop also in Fletton.  Another smaller shop but packed to the Gunnells with traditional Italian favourites both food and drink.  This is normally where I get my passata and pasta sauces from.  They also have a fantastic variety of dried pasta and other ingredients too.  They also offer pre-mixed Pizza dough. I am after some Italian Sausages.  This is normally where I get them from and I intend to freeze some in order that I have some to hand for quick options when it comes to tea/dinner meals. Sausages defrost relatively quickly.

With all the turmoil in the world at the moment, and with the situation with Iran and the Iranians stopping shipping going through the Straight of Hormuz, this is going to impact oil and food deliveries which will impact the cost of living directly by raising prices. To be in a position to be able to make the items that we use moving forward I am adding supplies of ingredients that I am low on.  At the moment my tinned supplies are significantly reduced as to what they normally are because of being used.  They are needed in any event.

I do not normally get involved when it comes to money, religion or politics, but somehow it strikes me that women would probably be better placed when it comes to keeping things peaceful where the men folk tend to do a lot of posturing and not necessarily the right kind of talking and listening; really listening.  Women can be very tough when they need to be, but in the right sort of way. They talk, they listen and they usually take the best overall route of achieving balance. I sometimes think that a lot of the Wars subsist because of money, minerals and needs, particularly for some of the larger countries who like many countries have become over-reliant on things they class as run of the mill as a complete and utter right.  When they cannot get them, they end up throwing the proverbial rattle out of the pram because they are not getting their own way!  Anyway enough said!

  

The Surprise

G went missing to go and fill the new car with petrol.  I thought that he was missing for a little while, so I knew he was up to something.

G not only got the car filled with our first lot of fuel for it, he had also nipped to the Peter's Bakery and come back with some fresh crusty buns, a Coffee and Walnut cake and some freshly made Hot Cross Buns. We go to a small bakery every so often in Peterborough which is a proper Bakery.  It is a small shop old fashioned style bakery in High Street, Old Fletton, Peterborough where frequently the customers are lined up waiting outside the shop to go and buy what they are after.  The bread is good as well and  is cooked in an older style bakery oven where occasionally the bread gets a little coloured; not over the top on prices either.

When he came back with two nets of Mussels, three Cod Loins, some Salt Beef, six packets of sauce brand name Kohinoor; three of Butter sauce and three packets of Karahi sauce which I had mentioned that I was going to buy on my next planned shopping trip to keep in the Pantry.  G beat me to it! He had also bought me some of the Family sized pots of Philadelphia cheese which is also part of my breakfast.  I do like the ones I have been buying in from Morrisons at £1 a pot, but these pots today were £2 for the double Family pot, so worked out about the same.

To give this clarity, I often discuss outline plans on the food front with G as sometimes he just does not fancy the options for tea or dinner so it is better to try and check as if I am cooking I do not want to go to all the time and effort in cooking something and then he turns his nose up at it. The other day for instance I mentioned in passing that I was after some particular "curry" sauces to stock in the Pantry as I have a lot of chicken in the freezer to use in the coming weeks if not months.  I also mentioned that it was a while since we had prepared Moules Marinière for tea.  I usually cook these in a little water, sometimes wine with garlic, shallot, a Bouquet Garni, and some butter.  Usually served with some thick crusty bread.  Simple is best.  Tea tonight is therefore going to be Moules Mariniere for tea with some fresh Honeydew Melon for pudding!

These are the outline plans at the moment; no doubt somewhere along the line they will get amended and will have to pivot, but that is what outline plans are all about at the end of the day.

I concentrate a lot on food in this household and this is where a lot of our budget actually goes; although saying that I do try not to pay through the nose with ingredients.  We would rather have good food at the end of the day on a regular basis.  We make choices and go without certain things as a result in order to be able to do this. Things that are not as important to us, as they are to others.  

Sometimes though you have to think long term. We often lived in small villages where the bus route was certainly intermittent and in our village you had to walk down to the middle of the village to catch the bus.  It therefore paid to have food supplies available. A lot of the villages we lived in also used to get cut off during the winter months.  We therefore always had food available even if it was in tins to eat until the roads were cleared and the milkman was able to get through.

I was taught to make long-term arrangements from an early age. I watched and learned from my mother and my grandmother what they actually did long-term on the food front especially when times were tough. Especially relevant as when my Dad went from weekly wages to monthly wages because of a change of jobs, which at the time was a shock to the household, we got by and had some really good meals. This was pre-freezer days. 

One of my Mum's techniques was to take me shopping and explain what she was doing and what she did.  This then gravitated towards me being sent shopping on my own with a list of what she wanted.  I only came back with what she wanted, where I could.  Sometimes the items were not available and I would return and tell her what was there.  I would often be sent back to the shop to get that item. Equally I would also be sent to the Butcher and I learned a lot about meat as well. This technique (when I was a teenager), worked because it taught me independence and methods for food shopping which I still employ to this day.  It also stopped Mum from impulse buying when she went shopping.  The supermarkets are clever in just trying to tempt you to buy this or that by having items just in front of the Tills!  Lets be fair, we all succumb at one time or another!

Just outline plans and doing what I can to keep the household on an even keel, and utilising protocols from the past that worked and helped us get through.

Now I need to sow some seeds to get that salad garden on the go, in order that I do not have to buy a little salad in.

Have a good one.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

x